This invention relates in general to an apparatus for supporting a bottle containing a solution being delivered to a patient on a wheeled carrier, and, more particularly, to a type of such apparatus which is capable of preventing damage to the bottle from swinging or dropping or falling when the patient is being transported on the wheeled carrier.
For many years, persons, such as medical doctors and nurses, have been aware of the importance of maintaining a continuous, regulated flow of solutions being delivered to a patient particularly following serious surgery, a serious accident or both. In the past, it has been at least acceptable practice to shift the patient from an operating table to a patient transport, such as a wheeled stretcher, for the transporting of the patient to an intensive care unit or to a recovery room. Frequently, solutions of one or more type must be delivered to the patient during the period immediately following the surgery or admission to the Emergency Room of the hospital and it is especially important that such delivery of the solution not be interrupted even for a relatively short period of time. Heretofore, it has been common practice for an orderly or technician to hold the solution bottle and manually carry it during the transport of a patient. Where the person holding the bottle must also be assisting in the transport of the patient, the bottles are sometimes dropped or lowered to a position where the flow by gravity is interrupted, or the bottle is bumped against a door jamb or the like and broken. Obviously, any one of these three eventualities results in an interruption of the flow of solution to the patient.
In some instances, the solution bottles are loosely suspended from a support attached to the wheeled transport but they are allowed to freely swing and, as a result, are often broken. In extreme cases of movement, as where being handled manually, such movement of the bottles can result in disconnection thereof from the patient, even though the bottle remains intact.
It follows from the foregoing, therefore, that there has been a serious need for a structure which will positively but quickly releasably hold a solution bottle in a fixed and protected position relative to the patient being transported upon a wheeled carrier. Accordingly, a primary object of this invention has been the provision of an apparatus for firmly, but quickly removably, holding a solution bottle in a fixed position relative to a rigid support on a wheeled carrier and patient being transported by the carrier.